How Europe can Benefit from Immigration-Related “Diversity” – a Policy Paper

2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura Zanfrini
Keyword(s):  
Diversity Management ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Integration Model ◽  
Economic Competitiveness ◽  
Policy Paper ◽  
The Social ◽  
Migration Experiences ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThis article is based on a selection of the findings and insights emerging from “DIVERSE,” diversity improvement as a viable enrichment resource for society and economy, a research-project realized with the aim of contributing to “reinvent” the European migrants’ integration model, in order to sustain both the positive interethnic coexistence and the long-term development of European societies. Implemented from January 2014 to June 2015 in 10 EU countries – Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden –, characterized by very different migration experiences, the project had identified three major levers to maximize migrants’ potential contribution: (1) enhancing the recognition of migrants’ skills, knowledge and competences (here after: SKC); (2) promoting the awareness of the advantages provided by the implementation of diversity management (here after DM) practices; (3) improving migrants’ civic and voluntary involvement. After a presentation of the theoretical premises on which the project was based (Sections 1–2) and the description of the project activities (Section 3), the article will focus on both the major impacts and the critical insights emerged in relation of each lever (Section 4); finally, it will develop some policy implications in order to make these levers crucial components of a wider strategy aimed at benefiting from immigration-related “diversity,” reinforcing both the economic competitiveness and the social cohesion of European society (Section 5).

scholarly journals Crisis and Continuation: The Digital Relocation of Jain Socio-Religious Praxis during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Religions ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 342
Author(s):  
Tine Vekemans
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Religious Activities ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
The Social ◽  
Religious Praxis ◽  
Online Format ◽  
Media Channels ◽  
Selection Of

In early 2020, Jain diaspora communities and organizations that had been painstakingly built over the past decades were faced with the far-reaching consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and its concomitant restrictions. With the possibility of regular face-to-face contact and participation in recurring events—praying, eating, learning, and meditating together—severely limited in most places, organizations were compelled to make a choice. They either had to suspend their activities, leaving members to organize their religious activities on an individual or household basis, or pursue the continuation of some of their habitual activities in an online format, relying on their members’ motivation and technical skills. This study will explore how many Jain organizations in London took to digital media in its different forms to continue to engage with their members throughout 2020. Looking at a selection of websites and social media channels, it will examine online discourses that reveal the social and mental impact of the pandemic on Jains and the broader community, explore the relocation of activities to the digital realm, and assess participation in these activities. In doing so, this article will open a discussion on the long-term effects of this crisis-induced digital turn in Jain religious praxis, and in socio-cultural life in general.

Compassion in Contemporary Social Policy: Applications of Virtue Theory

2011 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 251-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
MARY ELIZABETH COLLINS ◽  
KATE COONEY ◽  
SARAH GARLINGTON
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Community Settings ◽  
Virtuous Action ◽  
Environment Policy ◽  
Social Sciences And Humanities ◽  
Policy Debates ◽  
The Social

AbstractCurrent academic debate in the social sciences and humanities is revisiting the role of virtue in civic life. This debate is relevant to social policy. We argue that virtue is already an implicit component of policy debates, but that the virtue of compassion has not received sufficient emphasis. To support our argument we review classical and contemporary arguments regarding virtue and its linkage to the ‘good society’; articulate the necessity of compassion and its application to specific policies areas (e.g., domestic violence, welfare, emergency care); and assess how compassion intersects with other virtues in the policy environment. Policy implications are identified including: recognition of the realities of suffering, the need for sufficient administrative infrastructure and trained professionals and an often long-term commitment to work in community settings. Weighing the risks, and the overall challenges of virtuous action, our analysis suggests compassion remains a compelling, yet under-utilised, basis for constructing and implementing policies.

scholarly journals Choice and the Relationship between Identities and Behaviour for Mothers with Pre-School Children: Some Implications for Policy from a UK Study

2004 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 455-478 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSAN HIMMELWEIT ◽  
MARIA SIGALA
Keyword(s):  
School Children ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Child Poverty ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Feedback Effects ◽  
Qualitative And Quantitative Methods ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

This article reports on the findings and policy implications of a UK study that used both qualitative and quantitative methods to investigate mothers' decision-making with respect to the interlinked issues of the care of their pre-school children and their own employment. Mothers were found to have both internal and external constraints on their decisions. In the three areas of finances, childcare and working time, both personal identities and external circumstances limited mothers' choices. However, neither external circumstances nor identities were fixed. Behaviour and identities were therefore adjusted to each other, giving rise to feedback effects at both the individual and the social level.While the constraints of identity limit the direct effectiveness of some policies, the long-term effectiveness of others may be enhanced by positive feedback arising from attitudes changing along with behaviour. A ‘policy multiplier’ is defined as the ratio of such indirect to direct effects. This is likely to be greater for enabling policies that lift existing constraints and enable choices that were previously not available, than for coercive policies that impose new constraints on behaviour. The article examines the implications of such feedback effects for developing policy that expands the choices available to mothers in the short term, reduces the costs of motherhood, and meets the government's long-term objectives of reducing child poverty and increasing employment.

scholarly journals The fate of socialist agricultural premises: To agricultural ‘brownfields’ and back again?

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 207-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Josef Navrátil ◽  
Stanislav Martinát ◽  
Tomáš Krejčí ◽  
Kamil Pícha ◽  
Petr Klusáček ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Crucial Importance ◽  
Rural Regions ◽  
Border Regions ◽  
Peripheral Location ◽  
The Social ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Agricultural Transitions ◽  
South Bohemia ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract The variety of post-socialist agricultural transitions in four different rural regions located in South Bohemia (Czech Republic), with respect to the utilisation of the older premises, is subject to analysis in this article. A complete database was constructed, containing the identification of agricultural premises in 1989 and their use in 2004 and 2017. From 1989 to 2004, a number of agricultural brownfields emerged, and many sites had been utilised for non-agricultural purposes. After 2004, the acreage of agricultural brownfields was reduced and new land-use utilisation for housing and, especially other non-agricultural activities, significantly increased. The transition in the utilisation of pre-1989 agricultural premises is strongly influenced by the social and economic contexts in which particular sites are located. Proximity to an upper-level regional centre is of crucial importance for decisions with respect to how (and if) the site will be reused. The peripheral location of the site also affects the level and the selection of options for the ways in which particular pre-1989 agricultural premises are used. In the case studies reported here, the marginality of particular regions is increased by their location in the border regions of outer peripheries, where the probability of the presence of agricultural brownfields and the probability of long-term abandonment of agricultural premises is higher. For the traditional developed countryside, we found a typical low level of the share of long-term agricultural brownfields. After 2004, the re-use of pre-1989 agricultural brownfields for agriculture was ascertained, which is complemented by their use for housing.

scholarly journals Domesday Book and the transformation of English landed society, 1066–86

2017 ◽  
Vol 46 ◽  
pp. 343-403
Author(s):  
Stephen Baxter ◽  
C. P. Lewis
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Analysis ◽  
Geographical Distribution ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
The Social ◽  
Before And After ◽  
Domesday Book ◽  
Social Distribution ◽  
Selection Of

AbstractThis article presents the first fruits of a long-term project which aims to identify all the landholders named in Domesday Book, and to build up a picture of English landed society before and after the Norman conquest. The first part describes the project's methods and illustrates them with a selection of short profiles of individuals whose careers add distinctive colour to the emerging picture. The second offers firstly an analysis of the social distribution of landed wealth in England in 1066 and 1086, quantifying the numbers of landholders in different groups defined by the amount of the land assigned to them in Domesday. We then turn to a spatial analysis of landed society, using maps to illustrate the geographical distribution of landholding. In doing so, we offer fresh perspectives on the transformation of English landed society in the aftermath of conquest.

Social Policy Review 28

2016 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Policy ◽  
Unintended Consequences ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Annual Conference ◽  
The Third ◽  
Policy Review ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Of Affairs ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
The Welfare State

Drawing together a mix of internationally renowned contributors, Social Policy Review 28 provides an up-to-date and diverse review of the best in social policy scholarship. This book contains three parts. The first part focuses on the state of affairs in each of the pillars of the welfare state. It assesses to what extent the traditional ‘evil giants’ have been defeated, which new problems and unintended consequences have emerged and how this affects the policies. The focus on four policy areas are: pension policies, health care, income benefits and housing. The second part draws together a selection of papers from the Social Policy Association’s Annual Conference. The social policy implications of the outcome of the 2015 UK General Election was a major issue facing delegates. Indeed, the final day of the conference coincided with the new government’s first budget, during which details of the £12 billion of ‘welfare’ cuts promised during the election campaign were outlined. The four chapters in Section Two offer insights into what this agenda might hold and how scholars might best interrogate it. The third part explores the shift to individualised funding in different international settings, and also explores the validity of the underlying assumptions, which have driven the shift towards greater use of individualised funding. This part also offers a range of empirical lenses through which to examine these debates. Together these chapters help to deepen an understanding of individualised approaches within social policy.

Economic Development in 2006 and the Future of the Russian Economy: The Non-Resource-Based Sector Potential (The Economic Report of All-Russia Business Union “Delovaya Rossiya”)

2007 ◽  
pp. 27-45
Author(s):  
B. Titov ◽  
I. Pilipenko ◽  
A. Danilov-Danilyan
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Free Market ◽  
Economic Report ◽  
Russian Economy ◽  
The Social ◽  
National Economic ◽  
Investment Capital ◽  
Export Industries ◽  
Sustainable Economic Growth

The report considers how the state economic policy contributes to the national economic development in the midterm perspective. It analyzes main current economic problems of the Russian economy, i.e. low effectiveness of the social system, high dependence on export industries and natural resources, high monopolization and underdeveloped free market, as well as barriers that hinder non-recourse-based business development including high tax burden, skilled labor deficit and lack of investment capital. We propose a social-oriented market economy as the Russian economic model to achieve a sustainable economic growth in the long-term perspective. This model is based on people’s prosperity and therefore expanding domestic demand that stimulates the growth of domestic non-resource-based sector which in turn can accelerate annual GDP growth rates to 10-12%. To realize this model "Delovaya Rossiya" proposes a program that consists of a number of directions and key groups of measures covering priority national projects, tax, fiscal, monetary, innovative-industrial, trade and social policies.

Africa - Israel - Africa Return-migration experiences of African labour migrants

2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Galia Sabar
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Social Norms ◽  
Return Migration ◽  
Personal Responsibility ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Material Goods ◽  
Economic Assets ◽  
Migration Experiences ◽  
Return Process

This paper analyses homecoming experiences of African labour migrants who lived in Israel and returned home. Using qualitative research methodologies, I discerned what factors - material and non-material - determine the relative success of the return process. Focusing on these factors’ effects, I offer a new understanding of labour migrants’ homecoming experiences: those who are “content,” “readjusting,” or “lost. Following Ulrich Beck's (2006) analysis of cosmopolitanism, I suggest that these categories portray significant new life spaces that are neither what they left nor what they came from, and are dynamic, fragile, and constantly changing. In some cases the influence of economic assets on the returned migrants’ homecoming experience was indeed crucial, in many other cases the challenges of reconnecting oneself with home, family, and existing social norms and customs was much more influential on their homecoming experience including on their sense of well-being. Furthermore, some of the non-material goods such as individualization, personal responsibility, and long-term planning proved useful, others such as trust, particularly in relation to family, were detrimental.

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